Floor treating machines suitable for wet cleaning of a floor surface, comprising means for two different treatments of the floor surface are known in the art.
For instance, WO-95/09557 (Zachhuber) discloses a multi-purpose floor treatment machine which can be used on badly contaminated floors, said machine being provided with a sweep-suction unit that can be combined with a scouring-suction unit.
Other types of mobile wet floor treatment machines comprising means for two different floor treatment steps are disclosed by DE-4208094 (A. Kaercher GmbH) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,731,659.
DE-4208094 relates to a floor cleaning machine having two brush rollers rotating in the same direction. A coarse dirt collecting container (15) is provided between the two scrubbing rollers and acts as a filter to hold back the dirt particles and to allow the cleaning fluid to pass for the second roller. At the end of the machine there is provided a suction device for sucking up the used liquid. U.S. Pat. No. 2,731,659 refers to a floor scrubbing machine with which the floor surface can be subjected first to a scrubbing action with cleaning solution by a first brush followed by a rinsing scrubbing action by a second brush with clean water. The soiled cleaning solution is continuously removed by a first suction head and the soiled rinse water is continuously removed by a second suction head.
However, as can be seen in the prior art documents, the mechanical construction of the known machines comprising means for carrying out two different floor treating steps, is generally rather complicated. For instance, DE-4208094 provides a floor cleaning machine having a special mechanical system including rather specifically designed brushes for removing coarse dirt particles. Furthermore, the known machines do not allow the operator thereof to change the type of cleaning solution, during operation, nor do they have tanks for different types of cleaning solution.
Moreover, floor cleaning machines with which used cleaning solution can be recycled, are not known in the art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a versatile and reliable floor cleaning machine for wet cleaning of a floor surface, said machine having a relatively simple construction.
It is another object to provide a floor cleaning machine for wet cleaning, having improved cleaning performance and giving a better hygienic result as compared to known floor cleaning machines of the prior art.
It is a further object to provide a machine with which coarse dirt particles can be effectively removed using relatively low amounts of energy, whereby said machine does not include a special mechanical system for removal of such particles.
It is a still further object to provide a machine with which the economy of use of cleaning and disinfecting solutions carried by the machine, is improved.
It has now surprisingly been found that these and other objects can be achieved by the floor cleaning machine of the present invention.